SEC Says Fund Manager Lied About Algorithm Trading Chops

By Max Stendahl

Law360, New York (August 21, 2013, 5:47 PM ET) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday accused a North Carolina investment firm of lying about its algorithmic trading capabilities in order to win a plum contract managing a $17 million fund.

The SEC filed a civil administrative proceeding against Chariot Advisors LLC and its former owner Elliott Shifman, claiming they falsely told the fund’s board that Chariot could engage in currency trading using an algorithm model. In fact, Chariot did not have such an algorithm, and instead gave control of the currency transactions to...